


Growing pains

by Le_mango



Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, ELLIEDINA WEEK, F/F, Fluff, Just farm gals being pals, Oneshot, lowkey based on a true story, toddlers really just be like that sometimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:01:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29855031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Le_mango/pseuds/Le_mango
Summary: Took the EllieDina week prompt. Quickly wandered off that topic. Ended up here and don't plan on leaving
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 32





	Growing pains

**Author's Note:**

> Took the EllieDina week prompt. Quickly wandered off that topic. Ended up here and don't plan on leaving

"Haaaaay," Ellie greeted lounging at the top of the ladder. 

"Really?" Dina rolled her eyes continuing to push all the new hay into the back of the loft. 

"Hay, cause you're in hay." 

"Oh thank God you explained it Ellie." 

A tired laugh and she folded her arms on the floor. "No need to haaayte." Ellie grinned cheesily. 

"Oookay," Dina mumbled, "Did you actually do your job or are you just trying to give me an aneurysm?"

"I am your, ism?" Dina stopped working that time. She slowly turned just to shoot a disappointed look. Ellie snorted ignoring the fact Japan was trying to eat her jeans, "I know I just fed your brick of a horse, but I don't think she knows."

"My horse isn't dumb." Dina defended, "She just needs, a lot of help." Satisfied she set aside the pitchfork and tried to dust herself off. Most of the hay just floated right back to her clothes. Dina stood above the ladder waiting for Ellie to move. Ellie stared up innocently. "Can I come down?" A long moment and Ellie just blinked back at her. "Seriously?"

"What?" Ellie did a shitty job at holding back her grin. Her eyes quickly widening with fear as Dina brought her boot over her head, "Jeez, fine." She scrambled down the ladder. Ellie spat knowing something had fallen into her mouth. It was probably horse shit. Dina came down the ladder with a sly grin. While Ellie was distracted and she took the free shot. Dina smacked her butt with the force of an oncoming train, "Fuck!" Ellie yelped covering her behind. "No!" Her voice cracked. 

"I told you to move," Dina said innocently. "Let's see," she wandered out into the grazing area. The afternoon sun wasn't uncomfortably hot. But without clouds, she felt like she was going blind. Dina hung out on the fence staring out to the front of the house. In the time it took the last harvest to dry a new layer of stubby plants were already coming up. "Think it will grow back before winter hits?"

"Should be able to get a decent amount," Ellie answered cautiously waddling behind. "Love how we can stay fed with a few garden boxes but our fat-ass sheep aren't happy with all that."

"Ewegine isn't fat, he," Dina grinned thinking of a better answer, "he just gets the munchies."

"He needs to stop eating all our weeds." 

A short laugh. Dina flinched sensing Ellie coming dangerously close. Instead of a revenge smack, she lightly hugged her waist. A soft sigh as Ellie rested her head on Dina’s shoulder. Ellie slowly rocked back and forth with her. Dina closed her eyes relaxing into the general sway. The last few days had been nothing but hauling hay up into the loft. With each breath, she tried to relax her back and shoulders a little more. There was always activity coming from the nearby trees. Bird calls and small animals running around. She could swear she could hear the soft flow of water pushing to the nearby lake. It was peaceful, quiet, "Quiet," Dina gasped suddenly. "How long ago did JJ fall asleep?" Ellie's eyes widened. She'd lost track of time since they'd started working. "Fuck." Dina easily hopped the fence, but somehow Ellie had already sprinted past her. 

Ellie flew into the mudroom. So far, no fire. She didn't call out in case he was still sleeping. Veering around the corner the door to his room was open and a toddler size shadow moving around. Ellie stuck her head in and JJ froze with a marker in hand, "Ohhh buddy." Ellie took in the mess of markers and pens scattered on the floor. The lines and streaks on the floor, wall, his face,

"JJ!" Dina snapped. 

He gasped, dropping his tool of destruction. Rapid as his face dropped into fear. "Didn't do it."

Dina started to register the mess, "Dude what the fuck?" 

"Oooookay," Ellie sidestepped wrapping an arm around Dina’s back, "We were drawing before naptime and I did not put things away." She tried to divert the oncoming rage. Dina took a long and forced breath to calm herself. 

"Trouble?" JJ broke fat tears starting to form in his eyes. 

Another slow breath "Okay baby, what did you do," Dina knelt in front of him. She held a hand out towards him. JJ whimpered hugging her arm. "Yeah, you're in trouble." She sighed inspecting the scribbles covering his arms and clothes. As far as she could tell most of it wasn't sharpie. The last thing she needed was a zebra baby. "Did you eat it?" Dina tried to check his mouth. It was more than likely that answer was yes. 

"The stuff was made for kids. He should be fine." Ellie sighed sitting next to her. She absently started to sort out the various crayons and markers. Ellie looked over as JJ started sobbing into Dina's shoulder. She rubbed his back for a moment, "It's okay little guy. We can fix this." 

Dina rubbed her eyes with her freehand shooting Ellie a silent question. A shrugged apology for getting distracted. A quick back and forth on who would clean what. Ellie agreed to deal with the mess. Dina rolled her eyes at the sly dinner request. And no, no they were not doing that today. "Jay," Dina said softly as he started to settle, "Let's take a bath and a break." He nodded with a whine. "Can I pick you up or do you want to walk?" 

"Walk." 

"Okay." Dina got up slowly and let JJ lead the way. He swayed preciously to each side as he tried to walk and cry at the same time. halfway down the hall, he changed his mind asking to be carried.

"Fuck me," Ellie muttered sorting through the mess. A majority of the markers had new bitemarks in the plastic. He'd somehow managed to open every single one of them and launch the cap into space. Now she really understood why Dina was so insistent on putting an extra lock on her art supplies. There really would have been a problem if he had gotten into her paints. The more she looked around the more scribbles she found. Up the side of the dresser, on the legs of his little bed. They'd be finding art patches for months. One scribble kinda looked like a dick. Ellie snorted. Like there's no way it was intentional, but still, vaguely dick shape was always funny.

Ellie could hear muffled talking through the floor as Dina started to scrub him down. She wasn't sure if this day had gotten longer or if she was just tired of working two weeks straight. Once she gathered everything back into its bag Ellie stretched out on the floor. She needed a bath too. She gave herself a moment before thinking about the next task. How long had that stinker been awake? It's possible he had multiple markers in each hand and just ran along the walls. She wondered what theme music was going through his little head as he ran around the room. She closed her eyes for a few minutes knowing the task ahead would easily take the rest of the day. Ellie had to ignore the tempting lull of a catnap and reluctantly got back up. A quick trip to the kitchen for warm water and rags. She plopped back onto the floor and started scrubbing to the echoing tune in her head. 

"One clean mama and potato," Dina introduced a wrapped JJ on her hip. His face barely peeked out from the towel. 

"Both of you?"

"He wouldn't let go of me. Alright guy, time to go down." JJ's legs might as well have been broken. After a few attempts Dina just set him down and he rolled to his side. All Ellie could see was still a distant stare. "Well, this is going to take a minute." Dina rubbed her temple. She stared at the small clean patch Ellie had made. "I started heating more water for you."

"'Kay," Ellie hopped up. She pulled Dina in for a short kiss. 

"Good thing we can take tomorrow easy right?" Dina mumbled. 

"We could easily go a few days." 

A short half-smile before Dina pulled her in again. And added a line of kisses up Ellie's jaw. "Hmm," Dina’s nose wrinkled up. 

"Don't say it."

"Smells like garbage." Ellie groaned play dodging the last few pecks. As soon as she was out of Dina’s sight, she covered her blushing face. 

The bath helped her relax for a full five minutes. Ellie’s shoulders quickly started to ache again when she started cleaning. JJ was helping in the oversized t-shirt they lovingly referred to as the giving up pajamas. Since it was just about the only thing they could put on him when he was in a mood. JJ stopped his cleaning with a frown. "What is it buddy?" Ellie asked. 

"Draw." He said sadly. 

"You can still draw. But drawings for paper, not walls. Next time you need to ask first." 

He turned back and forth a few times. "Ellee."

"Yeah?"

"Don't feel good." 

"Really?" Ellie set aside her cleaning rag, "What doesn't feel good Jay?" He rubbed his stomach nervously. "Your tummy hurts?"

A short nod. "Tummy hurt." 

"Well," Ellie thought about the best way to explain a complex emotion like guilt to a toddler. "Sometimes when we do things that are naughty or bad out tummy tries to tell us to stop." Ellie glanced over to Dina making sure she was doing this right. "When we do the right thing, like helping Mama clean it will feel better." 

He shook his head back and forth. 

"No? Here," Ellie set a hand on his shoulder, "Sometimes it's hard to do the right thing but-" 

JJ bucked forward and threw up. 

"Oh," Ellie stared at it her mind going blank. She tried not to register the warm splashes on her shin. "I uh, uh I don't know if that was guilt or not." 

Dina tiredly swore, "I'll go get another bath." 

Ellie awkwardly pat his back trying to process where she went wrong, "It’s okay bud." JJ let out a weak whining cry. It really was going to be one of those days. A deep breath and he was back to wailing like his arm had fallen off. “Yeep. Yep. Let it all out. You’re okay” Ellie sighed as he came in for a hug. That was probably bad phrasing. She did not need him to let anything else out right now. 

Dina popped back into the room, “I starting to think this is a project for tomorrow.” Ellie looked over with a ‘you don’t fucking say’ glare. Dina mouthed a quiet apology as Ellie marched back to the bathroom for another round of baths. They tried to take the last few hours of the day easy since JJ was getting set off by everything. Dina bet three-thousand dollars he’d be an inch taller by tomorrow since the crankies were usually caused by growing pains. 

“The hell am I supposed to do with all that money?” Ellie argued holding her clinging koala baby. Since his second bath JJ refused to be set down for more than a few minutes.

Dina set aside the dish she was cleaning and started dancing, “Throw it at me for an extra show.”

“Dina!” Ellie gasped covering JJs eyes. She immediately broke into a stifled laugh, “I could throw something else at you.”

“Like the clothes you’re wearing?”

A coy gasp as Ellie snuggled up behind her, “You’re terrible.”

“I know.” Dina kissed her cheek. She turned to her pouty little man, “Still hurting?” She kissed JJs head. He grumbled pushing her away, “Excuse me? There’s no such thing as too many kisses for grumpy widdle man.” Dina planted a dozen more on his head, shoulders, and whatever she could reach. He tried to keep the grumpy face but eventually broke into a grin. “There’s my happy guy.” Dina cooed brushing his hair into place. 

“How come I only got one?” Ellie complained. 

“You’re not a handsome little man. Fuck off.” Dina playfully kicked her away. 

They kept the rest of the night pretty mellow. Watching an old animal documentary until JJ fell asleep. They tried to put him in bed but within minutes he popped awake crying for someone. Ellie tucked Dina in since her arms were full of a snoring spud. She slid into her side of the bed with an adoring smile. “Well, that was fun,” Ellie said softly. 

“Hopefully he’s not cranky all day tomorrow. My arms are fucking dead.”

“You carried him for nine months. Now you’re complaining?!”

“He did not weigh thirty pounds through all that.”

“Looked like he di-” Dina swatted Ellie before she could finish. She chuckled nudging Dina with her knee. 

Dina absently started scratching up and down Ellie’s leg. “This better not be the one that got barfed on.” She closed her eyes, “You know what, don’t answer that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Aha just finished midterms and forgot February was a short fake month and didn't prepare for this week at all ⚆ _ ⚆. Uhhhh happy EllieDina oneshot.


End file.
